Teesta Setalvad: 4 questions MHA wants her to answer

Gandhinagar, June 6: Teesta Setalvad has a couple of questions to answer. The Ministry of Home Affairs has slapped a notice on social activist Teesta Setalvad after alleged violations were found in the accounts her organization, Sabrang Communication and Publishing Private Limited (SCPPL).

While Teesta Setalavad would have to answer a few questions posed by the MHA asking her to show cause as to why action should not be initiated a set of officials from the government will also inspect the SCPPL office.

Questions Teesta needs to answer:

The MHA showcause notice has four questions. These relate to foreign funds and also funding of foreign journalists. The notice also alleges that some funds had been diverted in violation of the rules.

The questions in the showcause notice are:

- Were donations received by SCPPL from the Ford Foundation diverted? Were foreign journalists and editors funded by the SCPPL?

- Were all the funds used for the purpose it was meant for?

- Were secretaries to two other NGOs, CJP and Sabrang trust provided using the money from the same corpus fund.

-Were SCPPL, CJP and Sabrang trust functioning out of the same office?

MHA officials to inspect SCPPL:

Officials from the MHA are likely to inspect the offices of SCPPL. Meanwhile the SCPPL will also have to reply to the show cause notice issued by the MHA seeking answers to the questions. Whether action needs to be taken or not will depend on both the replies to the notice and also the inspection.

The MHA decided to issue a show cause notice based on a request made by the Gujarat government. It was stated that the SCPPL and the Sabrang Trust had received funds of 2,00,00 US between 2006 and 2009. It was also stated that funds of 90,000 US dollars had been received between 2004 and 2005.

The Gujarat government had complained that the funds were allegedly diverted for different activities. The funds were allegedly being used to stoke anti-India sentiments.